The Long Goodbye

DVD, Stargate Atlantis S2 (The Long Goodbye)

Good ideas can start off well, but it depends where it goes. I really wondered what kind of episode this was going to turn out to be when they discover a couple of life pods floating in space, bring them back and open 'em up. Actually, I was confused to begin with as I thought the old woman looked very much like an aged Carter from 'SG-1,' especially in that green and black outfit that, at a glance, seemed reminiscent of their uniform. I found it hard to believe they'd bring her in again after appearing a couple of episodes ago, but finding an aged Carter hanging in space within an alien life pod was certainly a high concept story idea! I quickly realised it couldn't be that, and then it becomes a supposed reunion between an old couple, man and wife, who wish to say goodbye before the consciousness that imprints on whoever goes near the pod, degrades and is lost after a few hours. As Caldwell said, it was a creepy idea to allow the consciousness of an almost dead body to be a living black box recorder so that upon opening it would jump to an alien to be able to tell what happened. That's not a nice way to go, but it turns out to be even nastier than that: far from being pleased to see each other after all this time it's the typical 'last of their kind wanting to wipe each other out so that they'll finally have victory for their people' (see 'Let That Be Your Last Battlefield' on 'TOS,' otherwise known as the one with the half-black, half-white faces), conveniently nonlethal in their initial escape with stunners rather than the more likely proper military weapons!

If it wasn't exactly original (even for this season, since McKay was invaded by another member of staff earlier), the invasion of another being's consciousness into someone's mind, whether by consent or not, is always ripe with story potential. Could it be that this would be a slow, quiet sort of episode, reliving an ancient war as two old people try to enjoy their final hours together, possibly as a catalyst for bringing Sheppard and Weir closer, as that seems to be what's been happening in the long game? No, it becomes a bottle episode with the pair of them on the run through the city in an attempt to murder each other, and of course the stakes are no less than Sheppard and Weir's own lives. It's a hollow victory they're pursuing and they use their wiles to try and fool their hosts' friends and colleagues, but there is a horror to an aged couple suddenly finding the use of young bodies and glorying in the age-old desire to crush the opposition as a final gesture of victory and defiance. So it's all about hatred, but it's also about trust. Some people make mistakes, and McKay is the one to save the day, as expected with any technical situation (Weir's gremlin takes control of the city and threatens life support), but there's some redemption there: Teyla and Ronon are a bit overconfident as they go about tracking down the two - Ronon thinks he understands how Sheppard thinks, but forgets it's not Sheppard's thinking he needs to be concerned with, and Teyla believes she'll have no trouble overcoming Weir, when it's not Weir she's up against.

Later, she makes up for it by allowing 'Sheppard' a gun to shoot 'Weir,' but it's only a stunner, and she kicks it away as soon as that task is accomplished, refusing to believe in his return to the real Sheppard. Ronon didn't get the chance for redemption because he gets shot by Weir and needs an operation in old-fashioned style by Beckett, without the power on, to survive. I will say that things were a little chaotic at first, so I wasn't sure if the warriors really understood what was going on, but they must have. The big surprise for me came early on when Colonel Caldwell comes waltzing into Weir's office almost as if nothing had happened, and he must have some gall to return after being outed as a Goa'uld parasite-controlled operative. I really did not expect to see him again, but here he is, apparently forgiven - it wasn't his doing, they say, but how do they know he didn't allow the Goa'uld in? It seems hard to be able to trust someone like that, but not to say I wasn't glad to see him again as he does bring some drama and shakeup to the comfy situation of authority on Atlantis, so he serves a purpose. None more than here where he takes over the operation, to McKay's dissatisfaction, though the Doctor is easily beaten down by the logic of the situation, and there's even some amity between Caldwell and the others by the end.

I can't help feel that this is a bit of a nonentity on the whole: the best reason to have main characters taken over by an outside influence is to give the actors a challenge, but it was blurry this time. They were trying not to appear other than their hosts when around others, but it would have been far more impressive to see them acting completely differently in both speech and action. I don't mean they did the same things as normal, because even Weir doesn't get so upset with the denizens of the city as to threaten their lives with fire suppressant gas usually, but she did at least move and talk a little peculiarly, while Sheppard seemed pretty much the same. The cadence and tone of what they said could have been so much different (see the Doctor in 'Darkling' on 'Voyager,' or Dr. Bashir in 'The Passenger' on 'DS9' for good examples), and really stretched them. Have them slip out of uniform, anything that jars the perception of the characters they usually play. As it was, it remained a slightly unsatisfactory action runaround, at least until Teyla is faced with an impossible situation: Weir orders her to kill Sheppard on camera or everyone in the living area will die. There was strong drama in that scene. It's always good to have episodes that aren't bound up with The Wraith, and I like that they can do an 'SG-1' style of stories from time to time, but it can also mean episodes that are forgettable in the grand scheme, and this largely falls into that category, even with that amusing scene in the Jumper at the start where they attempt to explain TV to the warriors.

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